HatchAmy

Presentations

2010-04-29T15:51:00.001-07:00

Heather is linking Regionalism, Transcendentalism, and Realism to talk about how Fuller links each of the other texts back to her own text and ideas. The growth in the women show what Fuller is trying to convey in her text.

Kristi is talking about how the influences of their foil leads the main characters to stray from the constraints of society of their times.

Meredith is linking local color and Transcendentalism. She is using the American Scholar as her cornerstone. She is going to be talking about man thinking, and what man thinking shouldn’t be. She’s also going to talk about the authors and how they relate to their texts.

Michael is going to use the Gothic and Dark Romanticism. He will talk about their reactions to different societies. He’s going to compare these genres to their predecessors. He’s going to talk about how these texts would have been written if these genres would never have existed. His sources discuss how different elements changed from one to the other. He is going to give some historical background on each genre as a whole. He’s going to try to shorten it down a bit.

Jenel is linking Transcendentalism using Emerson’s circles, and The Transcendentalist, with Dark Romanticism. She’s talking about how they are creating new ideas and challenging new ideas. She is using Fuller in her argument to show how a person can break those barriers. Dark Romanticism is man looking inside of himself and is the opposite of Transcendentalism.

Deb is talking about the Civil War Era and linking together texts like Chesnut, Whitman, and My Contraband. She is saying that the war shaped the writing and the topics of these texts.

Caitlin is talking about the British and American societies and connecting local color with regionalism. She’s going to use Hardy, James, Fuller, and Freeman to discuss feminism and naturalism.

Sara is linking together The Gothic, Naturalism, and Realist texts to talk about how each text has elements of each other within the different groups. She is going to use Zola as her cornerstone and talk about the experiment in Brown’s text as well as in Dorian Grey.

Norris and Hardy

2010-04-24T23:05:00.001-07:00

In Norris’ text “The Responsibility of the Novelist” she talks about how the novel is the great expression of modern life. He says that each for of art has its turn at reflecting and expressing its contemporaneous thought. Norris writes “Time was when the world looked to the architects of the castles and great cathedrals to truly reflect and embody its ideals. And the architects—serious, earnest men—produced such “expressions of contemporaneous thought”…”

First of all as a side note, I don’t remember it being on the fact sheet, but Thomas Hardy was an architect! Maybe it’s completely unrelated, or maybe that’s why Hardy was able to express his ideas so well through his writing! He was a “serious, earnest man” that “produced such expressions of contemporaneous thought” like Norris was talking about.

Secondly, in Hardy’s text, right from the beginning we get the about average, decent guy who doesn’t get the girl. He is described as “a young man of sound judgment, easy motions, proper dress, and general good character”. This would be an every day, “average” man that one could meet even in these days. The problem is that most women don’t like this kind of man. The same goes for Bathsheba. She didn’t want this guy either. I think in this instance Norris would agree with the theory that Hardy has in the novel because he is making his point by expressing his characters to be more realistic to modern people. Women are hard to please, and we want either what we can’t have or what isn’t good for us. Hardy is right on the money here. We have a million options, but none that are good enough for us. For Hardy, he is expressing his art through his novel. His thoughts are clearly portrayed throughout the text.Just thought I would throw this picture in there. :-)

Longer Proposal and Tentative Works Cited

2010-04-16T17:28:00.000-07:00

For my research paper I decided to connect Regionalism and Transcendentalism. When thinking about the paper I was trying to think of something that four different texts had in common and the one that stood out to me the most was women. So, I narrowed down four texts and thought about what could be a common theme. What I came up with was the fact that each of these texts demonstrates the importance of getting rid of the old idea that women have to conform to what society expects of them and accepting the change of the new idea that they don’t have to allow that. At this point in the 19th century American women want to move forward in life and be treated equally, but they face difficulties along the way because of the oppression of men.

In my essay I am going to use four texts. In Freeman’s short story “The Revolt of a Mother” I’m going to talk about how the wife wanted to have a new house and the husband wouldn’t listen to her. She decided to move into the barn to prove her point, and when the husband came home he realized what he had done was wrong and then yielded to her desires. In Jewett’s short story “A White Heron” the little girl first thinks that she wants to find this bird because not only did she want the money that the man had to offer her, but she wanted to do what he said and impress him. She later realizes that she doesn’t have to do it, and she figures out what is more important to her. Impressing the man and getting the money wasn’t the most important thing. In Dickinson’s poem “I Felt a Funeral in my Brain” she discusses how oppressive old ideas are, and she accepts the change of new ones. In Fuller’s text “The Great Debate” she talks about how it’s the Anti-Slave party that pleads for women. This demonstrates the idea of changing the old into something new. Fuller advocated for change to move forward and that is shown throughout the text.

Anderson, Douglas. “Presence and Place in Emily Dickinson’s Poetry.” The New England Quarterly 57.2 (1984): 205-224. JSTOR. Web. 15 Apr. 2010.

In this essay Douglas talks about Dickinson’s use of presence and place. He discusses several ideas about her uses of them, and how she meant for them to come across. He finds, however, that many lines are ambiguous and are then left for many different interpretations.

Cole, Phyllis. “Stanton, Fuller, and the Grammar of Romanticisim.” The New England Quarterly 73.4 (2000): 533-559. JSTOR. Web. 15 Apr. 2010.

Cole discusses in her text, the grammar of romanticism, which is defined to be an ideology and expressive mode affirming sensibility and self-awareness. She talks about the expectation of imminent change.

Gardner, Kate. “The Subversion of Genre in the Short Stories of Mary Wilkins Freeman.” The New England Quarterly 65.3 (1992): 447-468. JSTOR. Web. 15 Apr. 2010.

Gardner talks about the characters in which Freeman uses in her texts. She describes the typical females in the stories and talks about how the assertion of self against overwhelming odds gives us heroism.

Monteiro, George. “Traditional Ideas in Dickinson’s ‘I Felt a Funeral in My Brain’.” Modern Language Notes 75.8 (1960): 656-663. JSTOR. Web. 15 Apr. 2010.

Monteiro analyzes Dickinson’s poem “I felt a Funeral in My Brain”, and talks about how it is something more than merely a poem about a funeral. He says that the funeral is a metaphor, and involves more than Dickinson’s ability to identify her change in emotions.

Pratt, Anne. “Women and Nature in Modern Fiction.” Contemporary Literature 13.4 (1972): 476-490. JSTOR. Web. 15 Apr. 2010.

In Pratt’s text she talks about women, and the quest for self. She says that there is a large difference between the naturistic epiphanies of men and women. She discusses the girl’s view over the boy’s view.

Proposal for Final Project

2010-04-08T12:51:00.000-07:00

Dickinson: A funeral in my brain & A certain slant of light
Jewett: A White Heron
Freeman: Revolt of a Mother
Fuller: The Great Debate
New American Literature & Regionalism & Transcendentalism

Key points from texts:
Freeman: Wife moving into barn to prove her point
Jewett: Girl protecting the bird’s hiding place
Dickinson: “Internal difference / where the meanings are”
Fuller: Advocating for women's rights (women just as smart as men)

Each of these authors use different genres like Regionalism, New American Literature, and American Transcendentalism to emphasize the fact that women are moving towards getting more rights versus other genres like The Gothic which doesn't have this focus.

The focus on women's rights are generated by the time line that these genres are written in, as time moves forward women are realizing how oppressed they are and the desire to have more rights increases.

Dickinson, Freeman, Fuller, and Jewett
Each of these authors discuss in their texts the importance and meaning of individuality and sacrificing for what they think is right because of how hard it was to be a woman in their time. They do not fit into the common expectations of women because of their outspoken ideas like moving into the barn, not giving up the heron, figuring out internal meanings, and literally advocating for women’s rights. These women paved the way for women nowadays; if it weren’t for them stepping out of their comfort zone we wouldn’t be as progressed as we are today.

Daisy Miller. P.S. There's a movie! (That's super old).

2010-03-31T19:49:00.000-07:00

The author who wrote “Editor’s Easy Chair” talks about how Daisy Miller “represents a young American woman…and describes the unconscious manner in which she devastates the accepted usages of society, doing, with perfect innocence and pure maidenhood, what in Europe is done only by women who are not innocent. She is one of the young women who amaze European society and give a strange reputation to American girls” (Harper 780).

Winterbourne is the stereotypical European and when he notices that Daisy Miller is attractive he says "American girls are the best girls”. All he can think about is how pretty she is. He is blind to anything else except for her beauty.
He is not familiar with how American act and so he is confused by her yet charmed at the same time. James writes that “Poor Winterbourne was amused, perplexed, and decidedly charmed”. He couldn’t decide if she was just a pretty girl from the states “Or was she also a designing, an audacious, an unscrupulous young person”.

Through Winterbourne James paints the picture of Europeans having no instinct or reason to be able to help them decipher whether American women. Winterbourne decides that “Miss Daisy Miller looked extremely innocent” but some people had told him that they weren’t. He finally decides that Daisy Miller is “a pretty American flirt”.
Although Winterbourne is unfamiliar with Americans he compares Daisy to the relationships that he has had with European women whom were “coquettes” and were dangerous and terrible women. He says that Daisy is unsophisticated and a flirt and see where this takes him.

Daisy on the other hand doesn’t seem to notice that she is acting any different than the other girls. When Winterbourne suggest that someone stays with her younger brother so that they both can go see the monuments she naively says that Winterbourne himself can stay with him. The fact that Daisy Miller is not a coquette like some other European women astonishes and amazes Winterbourne, the classic European man. He doesn’t quite know what to do with her and he can’t figure her out.

Jewett's A White Heron

2010-03-25T20:04:00.000-07:00

During my fact sheet I talked about how “A White Heron” could be looked at through a “coming of age” lens. At the end of my fact sheet I gave part of the text that I felt showed this, so I wanted to talk about it more here.

“There was the huge tree asleep yet in the paling moonlight, and small and hopeful Sylvia began with utmost bravery to mount to the top of it”

I think that the huge tree symbolizes life in general and Sylvia’s braveness to mount to the top of it shows her growing up and facing what life has to throw at her.

“with tingling, eager blood coursing the channels of her whole frame, with her bare feet and fingers, that pinched and held like bird's claws to the monstrous ladder reaching up, up, almost to the sky itself.”

This line describes the sexuality that this young girl is feeling at this age.
“First she must mount the white oak tree that grew alongside, where she was almost lost among the dark branches and the green leaves heavy and wet with dew; a bird fluttered off its nest, and a red squirrel ran to and fro and scolded pettishly at the harmless housebreaker.”

Getting lost among the branches shows how hard life is and how difficult it is to grow up. Sometimes it’s not easy to find our way. We don’t know exactly what we’re doing or which way is the right way to go and sometimes we will get lost. This paints the perfect picture to describe this.

“Sylvia felt her way easily. She had often climbed there, and knew that higher still one of the oak's upper branches chafed against the pine trunk, just where its lower boughs were set close together.”

This shows that coming into adulthood doesn’t have to always be hard. It can come easily in some areas and in some instances. For Sylvia, she had often climbed this area, so this particular road in her life wasn’t going to be too rough.

“There, when she made the dangerous pass from one tree to the other, the great enterprise would really begin.”

The change from familiar to unfamiliar is the toughest part. Once could say that this might be the leaving the nest part. Sylvia realizes the dangers of change and how much of an adventure life really would be from now on once she passed from one tree to the next.

Photographs

2010-03-13T21:40:00.000-08:00

In Natalie Houston’s text "Reading the Victorian Souvenir: Sonnets and Photographs of the Crimean War", she talks about how photographs of this time look staged because they would have to pause for a few moments to take the picture. People had never seen war photographs before, and so they thought these pictures were amazing and awes-inspiring.

However, in reality, real and stage pictures of this group often times portray relaxation. She talks about how these photographs downplay the labor of war because it presents the times in which people were relaxing and not the busy stressful side of things.

Houston says that “By focusing on the officers and portraying them in this stylized manner, the real hardships faced by the troops are minimized”. This is true because instead of showing the action of what’s truly going on the viewer is painted a different picture. The picture that is painted here is one that’s saying everything is effortless and undemanding.

In this photograph that I found we are shown these things. There is a man hanging out on the back of a wagon. Nothing is really happening in the photograph besides this. We don’t get a war scene in the background or any other action, making it seem like nothing important is going on. Of course, war is more than nothing important, but these pictures don’t show this.

Levi's and Whitman

2010-03-04T16:13:00.000-08:00

When I watched the Levi ad’s I would have never guessed that it was Walt Whitman’s voice. It’s interesting to me that there are people who would recognize a dead man’s voice. The ad’s are kind of entertaining. I can see how they relate with what Walt Whitman is saying in his poetry, but again I would never have noticed that unless someone pointed it out to me.

McCracken says that advertising has taken the job of what Whitman thought was the poets, he says, “Whitman redefines the poet’s relationship to the reader in much the same way that early advertisers invented a relation between consumers and products. . . . What gave advertising such a strong position in antebellum culture is that it began to define its audience as subjects who occupied a unique position in regard to it. People were no longer pedestrians or readers; they were spectators, consumers, witnesses, and bodies in need of healing.”

If you think of it in the way that McCracken describes it then I would say that Levi’s campaign is celebrating Walt Whitman’s project. What they’re advertising is the self and America and being an individual and respecting and appreciating nature, which is what is portrayed in Whitman’s text as well as the Levi’s ads.

Levi’s wants their country to absorb them just like Whitman says that the poet should be absorbed by his country. Through this campaign they are able to do this.
Whitman’s texts and Levi’s jeans’ promises both guarantee “self-fulfillment, independence, and the kind of charismatic individuality that will make us the center of every crowd”. Although I think that this is a stretch and a matter of personal opinion on both parts I think that it works. They are celebrating Whitman because they are using his ideas to enhance not only their business and their profits but individualism and having pride in being an American as well.

I think that McCracken’s idea of advertisers playing the cultural roles that poets played in earlier eras is interesting to think about. I don’t know if I necessarily agree with that statement completely, but they do play a huge role on influencing people and persuading them to make a decision one way or the other.

Spirits

2010-02-18T22:31:00.000-08:00

Asher B. Durand's "Spirits"

In John Ruskin’s text Modern Painters he discusses the ideas of beauty. He says that “Any material object which can give us pleasure in the simple contemplation of its outward qualities…I call in some way…beautiful” (22). In Asher B. Durand’s painting “Spirits” one can definitely see the beauty in it. There are many things happening in this picture, at first glance it’s impossible to take in everything that the painting has to offer. Taking a closer look, one can see all of the detail and precision that was put into the artwork.

Ruskin also says that “Why we receive pleasure from some forms and colors, and not from others, is no more to be asked or answered than why we like sugar and dislike wormwood” (22). Ruskin is right. We can only wonder why we like sugar more than wormwood and we can only wonder why we like certain colors and firms more than others. For example, even though this painting is colored solely in natural colors like brown and green, one can still see the beauty in it because of the forms and what the picture is portraying.

Another idea that Ruskin discusses is the idea of God and nature, he writes, “We may, indeed, perceive, as far as we are acquainted with His nature that we have been so constructed as, when in a healthy and cultivated state of mind, to derive pleasure from whatever things are illustrative of that nature” (22). This painting is a perfect example of what he is talking about in this text because the painting clearly shows many aspects of nature. It shows the stream with rocks placed in it, it shows the sky, the hillside, and many other pieces of natures. Similarly to what Ruskin is saying in his text, it is only natural to see beauty in nature and in this piece of artwork.

Dark Romanticism and Hawthorne

2010-02-11T20:34:00.000-08:00

In Hawthorne’s short story “The Minister’s Black Veil: A parable”, there are several instances in the text were we can see “Dark Romanticism”. One instance in particular is on page 879, Hawthorne writes, “there rolled a cloud into the sunshine”. The context of which this is written is to emphasize what the veil is doing. It is causing sorrow for the minister and it provokes fear and curiosity in everyone who looks at it. Hawthorne uses Dark Romanticism in his text to emphasize the horror he tries to cause for the reader. He uses to dark and dreary aspects of nature in order to help him do this.

Another instance where Hawthorne uses Dark Romanticism in his text is a few lines down. He writes, “Even the lawless wind, it was believed, respected his dreadful secret, and never blew aside the veil” (879). Saying that the wind is lawless provides the reader with an image of something wild. We can picture leaves blowing around and trees swaying under the invisible power of the wind. He uses this line to describe just how consistent the minister is in never betraying his secret of why he can never unveil his face. Hawthorne uses Dark Romanticism again in order to emphasize the point he is trying to make. Even the power of nature, the lawless wind, cannot break the minister and reveal his secret.

Another instance that can be found in the text is when he writes, “As years wore on, shedding their snows above his sable veil…” (880). Hawthorne is using Dark Romanticism and the use of nature and the dark aspects of it to enhance his parable. All through the story the author causes the reader to be anxious. The reader expects something drastic to happen and by speaking of the negative aspects of nature it enhances the anticipation for the reader.

NATURE, CIRCLES, & THINKERS

2010-02-04T14:37:00.000-08:00

Nature centres into balls,
And her proud ephemerals,
Fast to surface and outside,
Scan the profile of the sphere;
Knew they what that signified,
A new genesis were here.

I think that epigraphs are interesting just because I always thought that the title kind of explained itself once you read the rest of the text. But, I guess not. Next time I write a poem, I’m going to write an epigraph to elucidate or justify the title of my poem. :-) Just kidding, or am I.

Anyhow, Emerson’s epigraph is especially interesting because I think that it basically sums up what is meant by the title of his work and pretty much the main point of his text. Emerson’s epigraph elucidates and justifies the title of the text for many reasons.

Take the first line for example. Emerson writes that “nature centres into balls” in his epigraph which parallels nature to circles. He’s saying that nature will always circle itself back around. It takes care of itself, and does not need man to help it.

I didn’t know what “ephemerals” meant, so I looked it up and it means either: “Lasting for a markedly brief time” OR “Living or lasting only for a day, as certain plants or insects do”

If this is the meaning that Emerson was going for then I think that he meant that nature can replenish herself daily through these “circles”. He’s saying that certain plants and other things in nature and otherwise can live or last for only a day, but through these “proud ephemerals” nature has its own way of surviving and replenishing itself.

Emerson talks about the profile of the sphere and that “they” knew what that signified and that the new genesis were here. He again elucidates the title of his work “Circles” because of what is implied. He says that there is a new genesis which means a new beginning. There is a start of everything and after something dies something begins again which essentially is a CIRCLE! :-)

As a side note, the quote I liked the best from this work is “The key to every man is his thought”. It’s interesting to note that through this time frame of literature and I’m sure in other places as well some of these authors are huge on influencing others to be “thinkers”. They think that being a “thinker” is going to make a person more successful. Being a liberal arts student I would have to agree! :-)

NATURE.

2010-01-28T20:44:00.000-08:00

Dorothy Wordsworth’s poem “Floating Island” is a good example of Romanticism for several different reasons. The entire poem is filled with references of nature. In the first stanza it talks about the different elements including the “sky, earth, river”. The poem discusses the fact that “Sunshine and storm, whirlwind and breeze / All in one duteous task agree”, this emphasizes the “awe when experiencing the sublimity of nature” because sunshine and storm, and whirlwind and breeze or opposites and great aspects of nature.

The second stanza uses more imagination because it talks about “how no one knew / But all might see it float, obedient to the wind.” This provides the reader with something to think about and the image that one comes up with is left to the imagination. What exactly is “a slip of earth”? Maybe some dust? Or something else? It’s really left up to the reader to decide that.

Stanza three shows a devotion to nature because it so well describes the mossy shore and how the birds use this area for their pastime. The poem says “Might see it” because not everyone can. Again it’s left up to the imagination. Possibly only a nature lover would recognize and appreciate this beauty.

The fourth stanza talks about living plants and insects and about how they live and die. This shows the awe when experiencing the sublimity of nature because normally we don’t think about insects and plants having life and eventually dying because they are not humans. This poem sheds some light onto this and shows us the experiences that take place every day.

The Fifth stanza talks about how nature may refuse to give anymore. This provides a sort of terror because without nature we would be nothing. Humans cannot survive without the oxygen we get from trees or without the food that we need from which nature provides. It’s a scary thought to think that one day nature might “cease to give”.

The end of the poem is thought provoking because it leaves the reader thinking about nature and about what could possibly happen. “Without an object, hope, or fear” implies that without nature we would have nothing, no hope, no fear, just nothing.

Huntly and the woods

2010-01-21T16:59:00.000-08:00

On page 94 the first paragraph talks about how he reached the mouth of the cave. He had forgotten to bring a lamp or a torch. This brings fear to the reader because this man is about to enter the cave with no acceptable lighting. He may or may not run into obstacles that he cannot see because of the lack of light. There might be animals or other dangerous objects that would hinder his path and that could have been avoided if he was able to see them. Even though the reader cannot see exactly what the mouth of this cave looked like because the author does not give it a good description; we can imagine it because of the sensation that is produced from the text. The text talks about how using a lamp or something else to give light would be a more cautious thing to do, but he doesn’t let that stop him. He goes ahead and enters the cave bringing the reader even more fear because of the unknown. Someone more oriented toward the picturesque might have described the cave in full detail giving the reader an inch by inch description of exactly what everything looked like. This might have taken away from the interpreted sensation that we get from not fully knowing what the scene looked like and only being able to draw on the text that we do have and the character’s reaction to it. Being able to interpret this scene in our own way produces more fear because of the lack of knowledge. If it were written by an author more oriented with picturesque it would have possibly produced a different kind of fear.

On page 122 in the fourth paragraph it talks about how the bridge that he wanted to use had been destroyed. He thought about how he could repair it, but he knew that he would not have enough strength to get a fallen tree to mend it. Not only did he have to now think about another path to which he might be able to take but he was exhausted as well. For the reader this brings upon feelings of fear for the character because we think that this exhaustion is going to hinder him from going further down his journey and also may ultimately be detrimental to his life. He is tired and so he probably wasn’t thinking with a clear head. In this passage in particular Brown definitely succeeds in making the wilderness a threat for the reader. Because we don’t know exactly what the different paths look like we can only interpret the fear that Huntly has to feel because of not knowing which path to take. The only path that he recognizes is out of the question and he is forced to go a different way in which he has never been. The text produces the sensation of his exhaustion by setting us up for what has just happened. He has been on this long journey through the woods and not only is he tired and disoriented but now he has to figure out what he is going to do next when clearly he not able to think straight. If another author who was oriented in picturesque had written this passage we would have clearly been able to see each possible way that Huntly could have gone therefore losing the interpretation that we as the reader have to make about Huntly and his state of mind and the difficulty of choosing the correct path. Without knowing exactly how the woods look we are able to imagine things we would have been unable to otherwise.

Terror vs Horror

2010-01-14T21:28:00.000-08:00

There are MANY different movies to choose from, but for my example I decided to use one that I have recently seen. Orphan is a perfect example of terror, because the entire time the viewer is feeling dreadful and anticipating what the little orphan girl is going to do next. In one scene in particular there is a little girl whom the orphan (Esther) doesn’t get along with. The little girl is walking up through a jungle gym type thing at the park and the eerie music sets the tone that something bad is about to happen. The viewer is forced to be anxious and waits for what we know that Esther is going to do. Sure enough, Esther pushes the girl off the jungle gym, and the little girl breaks one of her bones.

In another instance one of the nuns from the orphanage that Esther came from came down to talk to the parents. As she leaves we see Esther forcing her little sister Max to come along with her up the road. Esther tricks Max into helping her with her scheme. We know something bad is about to happen, and the dread and the anxiety gets out hearts racing. Then of course Esther pushes Max out into the road and the nun swerves off and wrecks. Esther then kills her and forces Max to help drag her off the road. The anticipation that comes before both of these horrible actions makes this movie a movie of terror and not horror.

The Saw movies on the other hand are completely different because of the blood and goriness from the beginning. The viewer is repulsed after seeing time after time limbs getting cut off and bodies being torn apart. One scene in particular has a man who has a chain cuffed to his ankle and he figures that the only way he is going to be able to escape and save his life is if he saws his own leg off. The viewer is appalled and shocked to see that he does indeed saw off his leg! Another instance is when this guy (pictures below) finds that his entire head is trapped in some kind of giant claw and his eye is gauged out! There is no denying that all of these Saw films would fit nicely into the horror category.

Introduction number 2!

2010-01-14T12:11:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! This is my second intro post so everything is pretty much the same!

My name is Amy Hatch, and this is my second semester at WSU Tri-Cities. I'm an English major, and I love it! I work at the IHOP in Kennewick, and I am usually busy ALL THE TIME with work and school.

Uhhh...yep that's pretty much it! :-)

Annotated Bibliography

2009-12-15T22:58:00.000-08:00

I couldn't get the spacing right. It wouldn't let me tab over or even space bar it over. I know it's a little late, but here it is anyways.

Annotated Bibliography

Dayan, Joan. “Review: Gothic Naipaul.” Transition 59.1 (1993): 158-170. JSTOR. Web. 15 Dec. 2009.

Drake, Sandra. “Race and Caribbean Culture.” Wide Sargasso Sea. Ed. Judith L. Raiskin. New York: Norton, 1999. 193-206.

In Sandra Drake’s essay she talks about how Antoinette is more comfortable with the native of the island. She would rather lean towards the natives then away from them. She realizes that the island is the direction of her past and her future. Although Antoinette is white she feels as if she fits in better with the people of the island. This goes along with my argument because although she feels as if she can relate better with the islanders, when Tia rejects her, she feels alienated and isn’t able to find her identity because she feels like she doesn’t fit in anywhere even though deep inside she knows it’s with the island somehow.

Fayad, Mona. “Unquiet Ghosts: The struggle for Representation in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea.” Wide Sargasso Sea. Ed. Judith L. Raiskin. New York: Norton, 1999. 225-239.

In Mona Fayad essay she discusses the fact that Antoinette maintains a sense of autonomy because she labels Mason ‘white pappy’ therefore connecting her to her past with past. This relates to my essay topic because Antoinette can’t find her identity through her white heritage, and she can’t completely find it through her link to the black world either because she is not black.

Greenberg, Robert. “Anger and the Alchemy of Literary Method in V. S. Naipaul's Political Fiction: The Case of The Mimic Men.” Twentieth Century Literature 46.2 (2007): 214-237. JSTOR. Web. 15 Dec. 2009.

Harris, Wilson. “Carnival of Psyche: Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea.” Wide Sargasso Sea. Ed. Judith L. Raiskin. New York: Norton, 1999. 188-192.

In Wilson Harris’s he talks about how Anoitnette’s madness is her surrendering her life. She was unable to find her soul, so she lost it. This is exactly true, and it helps me with my argument because Antoinette and Ralph’s father gave up on life and Ralph chose to press forward and to move on through any obstacle.

Naipaul, V.S. The Mimic Men. New York: Vintage International, 1997. Print.

Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. Ed. Judith L. Raiskin. New York: Norton, 1999. Print.

ABSTRACT

2009-12-11T15:40:00.000-08:00

In The Mimic Men, Things Fall Apart, and Wide Sargasso Sea there is a common thread of madness among people who don’t have a sense of identity. However not everyone who has a lack of identity becomes mad. The factors leading up the three people in these novels are all different but they correlate in different ways. Ralph on the other hand also suffered from a lack of identity, but he did not go mad because he was smart and had the drive to become successful where as the other three did not. These three were weaker and could not handle what life threw at them. There circumstances were too much for them and slowly they became mad because of them.

Each novel has a character who went mad and different circumstances led up to the event. In The Mimic Men, Ralph Singh’s father married into a family that made more money then he did and little by little that drove him crazy. Also, he doesn’t feel like he is being appreciated and recognized for his achievements for what he has done in his life including being a missionary. He proves his madness by taking his family on a reckless drive, he gets riled up about the bat and breaks things, he breaks all of the bottles in the store, and finally he leaves his family and takes a bunch of people outside the town for some religious following. In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo’s father goes mad because he can never be successful or be a great tribe member. He always has to borrow and he brings shame to his family. He ends up being an outcast and Okonkwo always things of him as a failure. In the Wide Sargasso Sea Antoinette had a crazy mother to begin with and a horrible childhood. She didn’t fit in and could make any real friends. She is coerced into a marriage with a man she did not know. She does many crazy things to prove her madness including drugging her husband, attacking someone while being in the attic and she doesn’t remember any of it. She also sees herself as sort of a ghost in the end of the novel.

Ralph on the other hand didn't have a sense of identity either but he never went crazy. This is counter argued by discussing the fact that he was a stronger person and had the drive and was smart enough to become successful whereas the other three characters did not. Ralph was able to realize when his marriage wasn’t working and was able to get out of it successfully. He was able to make a lot of money by buying land and selling spaces. Even though he didn’t really know himself very well he was a smart person and could overcome any obstacle.

THE AVALANCHE

2009-12-10T21:30:00.000-08:00

So, this evening we made it to the Avalanche and they were SO surprised that there were only six of us (all girls) and we wanted to order THE AVALANCHE. Before they came out of the kitchen they yelled AAAVVVAAALLLAAANNNCCCHHHHEEEE and of course Heather and the other girls at our table started cheering and so everyone in the entire restaurant was staring at us when the waiter brought us the desert. EMBARASSING. Haha.

It wasn’t as tall as I thought it was going to be, but there was definitely WAY too much for the six of us to come close to finishing much less ONE person eating the entire thing. That is crazy. There is seriously a WHOLE BOX of brownie at the bottom starting that thing off. It was ridiculous! Haha.

Additionally, somehow it came up with the waiter that we were getting extra credit for this and so the kitchen staff wanted to know which teacher was doing this and so Heather said “Julie Meloni” and the waiter says “Julie Bologna?” All of us seriously LOL-ed. He didn’t understand why an English teacher would give us extra credit for getting a gigantic desert, but I explained to him how we had read a story that had to do with gluttony (the cowboy chicken story) and he totally got it.  The employees there were way too amused with us and our monstrous desert it was awesome. The whip cream melted all over the table and the busser kept eyeing us and our messy table.

THE AVALACHE:

SHE WAS SHOCKED!

AND HEATHER WAS HUNGRY…

FINISHED PRODUCT:

Proposal

2009-12-04T22:12:00.001-08:00

I don't have a tentative works cited yet, but for my essay I'm going to write about madness in Wide Sargasso Sea and in The Mimic Men and how post colonialism effected it. Any additional ideas or comments would be appreciated!

Dubliners

2009-11-14T22:16:00.000-08:00

In James Joyce’s Dubliners I found his stories to be interesting, but since we didn’t get a chance to talk about them in class I’m kind of wondering what the purpose of the stories are supposed to be. For example, in “Araby” he goes to the event because he wants to impress this girl that he likes and to buy her something special, but if you read the footnotes you come to realize that he has next to no money to buy her something with and the story ends leaving you wonder if and what he ended up buying her. It was a little random and disappointing.

“Evelyn” on the other hand was a little more dramatic. She had this once in a life time opportunity but her woman’s heart got the best of her and held her back. She felt guilty and stayed to help take care of her family when she could have had a potentially amazing life with this guy off in another country. This story had the potential of a fairy tale ending but instead it ends it with her being in the same place as she was in the beginning. I like fairy tale endings, so that was a little depressing for me. Haha.

I thought that the stories were unique and the style they were written in is interesting also. For example, he calls a dead end road a “blind road”. Maybe that’s an Ireland thing? Anyways, kind of interesting none the least.

Jhumpa Jhumpa

2009-11-06T20:53:00.001-08:00

In Lahiri’s short stories I found it interesting that she blends culture with identity. I really enjoy learning about both culture AND identity, so I REALLY enjoyed these stories. Something that Maegan had said in her blog was “It seems to relate to my life somehow but I can’t really explain it. I somehow connected with these stories”. I found this to also be true. Even though I am not Indian and I have no Indian heritage I can definitely relate with the people in Lahiri’s short stories because in each of them the characters go through some kind of ordeal. They change, they grow, and they learn. We do those things in everyday life as well. Maybe I didn’t live in three different continents like one of the characters in the story, but I can relate to moving somewhere far from home and not knowing anyone and having to live with strangers. I too grew fond of some of these people that I had never known before. Similarly, I can relate to not having any money and having to work my way up from the bottom. These situations happen in life. I enjoyed, however, how she intertwined Indian culture into her stories. She made sure to describe Mala and how she dressed and how she acted. The reader can get a real feel for how she was and how it was for her and her husband when they were first married.

On another note, I didn’t speak up in class since this might have confirmed Heather’s accusations towards me of having my own sex diaries (I totally don’t even though I don’t think it’s weird AT ALL. Haha). But, I’m just saying…seizures can be caused by stress right? So, couldn’t it be that by having sex Bibi relieved the stress that was causing these seizures? It’s a possibility. Also, I’m not so sure that it was her cousin that raped her. She never said it was a rape. Although this is a possibility and she could just be keeping quiet out of shame I don’t think that’s what happened. I have a feeling it was consensual. She wanted to have someone. I don’t think she cared at what price that would cost. But who knows! Maegan says, “all she needed was a person to love her or for her to take care of”. This seemed to be the most popular idea, but I’m going my own unique idea. 

Ha Jin and Conrad

2009-10-29T16:53:00.000-07:00

For Ha Jin, writing in Chinese for the people of China would be a difficult task for many reasons. Not only does the communist party censer everything they wouldn’t approve of his writing anyways. In Ha Jin’s short stories he talks about capitalism and communism. He identifies the ignorance and stupidity of the communist party. In the “Cowboy Chicken” story he shows the Chinese to be trained in the communism ways, and what should be known as common sense isn’t known to the Chinese because they are so absorbed in the culture of communism. In the story “Alive” we see this man who abides by every communist rule and law in the beginning and seems to do fine at first. In the end he ends up breaking free from this and making some of his own decisions. This shows us how many Chinese were taught to do what they were told and not to question authority. They were not taught how to think and act for themselves, but to do what is best for the party. This would cause conflict if written in Chinese for Chinese citizens, because he would not be able to get published because of the content of his stories.

Postcolonial literature may have changed if Conrad would have written in his native language, because Conrad was writing to a targeted audience. He knew that it was more beneficial for him to write in English. If he would have written in any other language than he would not have gotten the outcome that he wanted. He wanted to show the world what he had seen and been through and he was able to do that in English. If he had written in Polish or any other language his stories and the points he was trying to make may have been hindered therefore changing postcolonial literature.

P.S. If anyone would like to go to that restaurant after class this coming Tuesday for extra credit let me or Heather know. We’re trying to get 8 people at least to go so that way it’s only $5 each.

Rochester

2009-10-09T14:21:00.000-07:00

In the essay “Wide Sargasso Sea and a critique of imperialism” Spivak writes about how other critics “have remarked that Wide Sargasso Sea treats the Rochester character with understanding and sympathy” (243). Now I realize that I am going to get a lot of hate comments about this, but I agree! I actually felt bad for him! I know that he’s not the greatest guy, and he did cheat on his wife with Amelie, and he was a racist, but let’s look at the whole picture. He’s from Europe and he was probably raised as a racist, and he probably didn’t know much better. I mean, He doesn’t treat them horribly except for the little boy whom he calls stupid, but if you think about it there are “stupid” white kids too, kids who aren’t educated and who can’t speak properly. The only things he outright says is when he’s questioning Antoinette and tells her he would never hug “them” inferring that he is better them. Additionally, when he sleeps with Amelie, he had just been drugged! Not that this is an excuse for being unfaithful to his wife, but who knows, he might have still been out of it, and even if he was coherent, he was probably pissed off that his own wife would drug him. He could not comprehend that his wife only wanted to make him love her, he didn’t understand that. To him, his crazy wife drugged him, for only God knows why!
I just don’t understand why they would go through such a hassle to keep Antoinette drugged. I don’t buy that story at all! She was a little loopy the whole time! I mean, look what she went through. All of the trauma that she had as child and as a teenager probably messed with her mind. Even Rochester talked about how during the day she seemed fine, but in the evenings she was quiet and strange. That was before the letter informing him that she was crazy came. Plus, I don’t care what anyone says, after he married Antoinette, he got the money. He didn’t have to give it back, he could have went to Mexico with it and lived happily ever after with some beautiful Latina, but he didn’t. He took his wife with him and got her a caregiver and made sure she was fed and kept a roof over her head. He was mad at his father and his brother anyways, and he never wrote any letters to friends that he might have had. So, what was keeping him there? Not much, probably. It seems that his loyalties still resided with his wife. He had no other logical reason for staying with her, (none that I agree with anyways). :-)

Thoughts.

2009-10-03T18:00:00.000-07:00

I thought it was interesting how the husband got so angry about the wife telling the little boy that he could come with them to England. If the boy was so stupid, (Phys 104) and he didn't care about him, then he could have just left it at that. It doesn't seem like it would be so important to get angry about. I think that he was so worked up about everything else that he was just taking his anger out on this situation. It's obvious that taking the boy with them is a silly notion, so the husband didn't need to get so defensive about it. Children cry when they don't get there way, it's not a terribly big deal. That little boy is surely to get over it.

It's interesting also how the husband come off as a racist, but he ends up sleeping with Amelie who is colored. Even if he did that out of spite for his wife, it's still something interesting to note. Then after the fact he goes on to degrade the little boy calling him stupid and saying how he doesn't even know any understandable English (103). This contradiction makes him a hypocrite, and lessons his credibility as a character.

Nyowe.

2009-09-18T21:48:00.000-07:00

One of the most upsetting things for me in HoD was Nwoye and his pathetic relationship with his father. It was so sad to see a father with such little love and compassion towards his son. The only thing Okonkwo cared about was structure, being strong, and being his own idea of success. I don't believe that Nwoye was any less of a man then his father, I don't believe that he was lazy or anything else. I think that Okonwo's standards for his son were incredibly high, and he was made to jump through all of these hoops just for a chance of some recognition from his father which he very rarely got. Even the glimmer of hope that he had from the kid from the other village was killed in an instant. Poor Nwoye eventually had to find the love and the nourishment that he needed from another family which he found in the white man's church. Okonkwo thought that this was a disgrace, but in all actuality it was his own lack and selfishness that drove his son away from him.

Should we read Heart of Darkness?

2009-09-10T19:54:00.000-07:00

On the topic of whether or not we should read Heart of Darkness, it’s kind of complicated. If we’re reading it just as a story it’s not such a big deal because we can imagine it being fiction and take it or leave it as we please. But, if we read it as a piece of literature and scour every nick and cranny of the book we can pick it to pieces and ultimately form our own opinions whether bad or good about the book. Really it can be seen both ways. I feel that although there are a lot of literary critics who think that Joseph Conrad is a racist, there are a lot of things to consider when thinking about whether or not we should continue to read this book (Armstrong 238). When we look into Conrad’s life we see that he actually did sail through the Congo, but we cannot think of his story as an exact reenactment of history and what had happened there. Marlow is not Conrad, and his work is a piece of fiction even if some of what is in the story was based off real life. When we begin to read the story as just that, a piece of fiction, it seems a little less threatening. Also, a good thing to point out is the fact that even though Marlow is calling the natives of Africa “savages” and other things of that nature, it was common for white people to use such language when referring to people other than themselves. It wasn’t considered “racism” because these people weren’t thought of to be in a class as like themselves and racism wasn’t even a word in those days. I think that it’s ok to read Heart of Darkness but it’s important that we know the whole story and how Conrad himself fits into it. It’s also important to know what was correct and incorrect at that time, because of course if we were in Africa today calling the natives “Negroes” and other names, we would be considered horrible and a racist, but back in that day, that wasn’t the case.

Galton and Heart of Darkness

2009-09-03T16:58:00.000-07:00

In Francis Galton’s essay, “The Comparative Worth of Different Races”, he basically gives a grading scale to a bunch of different races. He says that “The ablest race…is unquestionably the ancient Greek” (Galton 227). According to Galton, anyone not from that category is on a lower scale, the lowest being Australians. He talks about how most “negroes” are half-witted and that they make stupid mistakes that are childish and simple (Galton, 226). He bases his ideas off of books he’s read that were written by white Americans who portray this idea. He even states that he has no information of the idiocy among “negroes”, but he felt the need to share all of his opinions anyways (Galton 227). The idea that “negroes” are of a lesser worth than white people is supported in the short novel Heart of Darkness, because of many different instances. For one thing, Conrad repeatedly refers to the people of Africa as “savages”. The Webster Dictionary defines a savage as “not domesticated or under human control or lacking the restraints normal to civilized human beings. By Conrad using the term “savages” to describe the African people, he is implying that they are of a lesser worth than himself to say the least. He is implying that they aren’t even human, that they are closer to animals than they would be to his own race.

Introduction

2009-08-26T19:04:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! My name is Amy Hatch, and this is my first year at WSU Tri-Cities. I just finished getting my AA at Columbia Basin College, and I am super excited to be done with that school. I work at the Ihop in Kennewick, and I am usually busy ALL THE TIME with work and school. At least now my school work will be something that I enjoy doing, because it has to do with my major!

Well, if you want to know about me you can always friend request me on myspace!
http://www.myspace.com/itfeelslikeabuse

AND...in case you can't place my name to my face, this is me: